Links We're Loving!

Stacey Woods PhotographyMy fabulous friend, Stacey Woods, is an incredible photographer specializing in maternity, newborn, and children photographs. She has also taken some amazing shots of our delicious gourmet cookies that will make your mouth water!!

Hallmark DevelopmentThis is one of our satisfied corporate clients. and we really enjoy working with this stellar group. Hallmark Development of Florida is a diversified real estate development firm founded 43 years ago by Daniel Engelhardt. It has developed roughly 630,000 square feet of office and service-center space with nearly 160 tenants at the Airport Business Center near the St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport on 140th Avenue North in Clearwater.
Currently, Hallmark is building Pinellas County's first privately owned LEED office building. When complete, this 25,290-square-foot building will be the international headquarters for The Moorings/Sunsail.

Confetti EventsJamie & Laurie are two of the most creative girls I know. Event planners extraordinaire, you will be amazed and inspired by their ideas and talent. I've enjoyed getting to know them, and have loved working with them. I hope you'll check them out for your next event!

Dreaming Giggles DesignYou will love Patti's talent and her fabulous creations!! All of her items are custom designed, and working with Patti is a great experience.

Finicky Window CleaningYou will love John & Jesse, owners of this business, and will be amazed with their work! These people know how to do windows, and do it right! Plus, customers receive Kookie Krums cookies with the Finicky logo on them . . . a yummy reason to have your windows washed today!

Blogs I Follow

Two Shades of PinkMy gorgeous new friend, Jessica, has an amazing story of her journey to motherhood, and daily chats about her life in the trenches. You'll laugh out loud, and sometimes cry as you read; I love her perspective on life!!

Mom2DrewMy incredibly sweet friend Jenny writes about life with her little boy (who is also incredibly sweet and very cute!). A totally different perspective than those of us with girls, although she does have a baby girl on the way! I always find her posts encouraging. I know you will too.

Bring the RainFor those of you who have ever lost a child, or know someone who has, this blog is incredible. Having lost four babies myself, giving birth to one and knowing her for a brief four hours before she died, I can tell you every sentiment, every feeling, every sentence is absolutely true. From mourning to dancing, this blog will completely bless you.

Tickled to be a Member of:

finding the time

August 18, 2010

My hubby and I tend to "call" lunches every night after dinner. As in "I'll do baths, you do lunches." This is usually followed by a, "but I fixed dinner, YOU do lunches." Or a "Oh c'mon, let me have baths, YOU do lunches." Can you tell we're not big fans of packing lunches?! It's just that I get bored with the same old same old, and he has trouble keeping up with what the girls have decided they are and are not willing to eat on any given week. My girls are not picky by any stretch of the imagination, so it really boils down to that we both kind of stink at packing lunches.

In the hopeful thought that we CAN'T be the only ones out there, I thought I'd share what I came up with to make the process at least a little bit easier.

I actually got this little rolling cart from a yard sale for a buck, you can't beat it. The girls pick some, and I pick some, and I separate the crackers, pretzels, etc. into snack size zippie bags. For all of you looking at all those plastic bags, don't judge me. We do what we can do, but I have decided I cannot give up my snack size zippies. I just love them. I'm a huge coupon freak, so not only does this make packing lunches easier, it ensures that we finish a box of snacks before it goes stale, and that we don't have four hundred and eleven boxes of various snacks open at the same time.

Their gummies and fruit snacks go in here too, as well as any little treats, desserts, etc. The lovely thing about having this cart stocked is that when the girls want a snack, they know they can help themselves to anything on the cart. Having the cart on wheels also means that when I'm stocking the cart, I can wheel it right into the kitchen next to me. Lazy little girl, aren't I?!

My refrigerator has a similar shelf as well, with fruit pre-portioned into little baggies. At least there's always two things packed and ready to go to grab and put in the lunch bags. No extra thought or effort required.

And of course, after school, there's always a snack of milk and cookies around here! Do you have any ideas or tips that makes packing lunches easier? I'd love for you to share in the comments!

June 08, 2010

Obviously this is still something I struggle with too, right along with you. Has it really been two weeks since I first talked about this, suggesting we join forces and help each other find the time for those things that really matter to us? It's been on my mind so often, and yet my thoughts have not made it to paper. Maybe becausae I don't feel qualified to offer advice on the subject. Maybe because I see so clearly those things that just don't get done in my life, and those are bolder to me than those things that do get crossed off the list. Or maybe it's just because I haven't made the time.

Just last night one of my most favorite girlfriends and I were discussing the importance of finding the time for things that nourish us. How getting our toes done, or a fresh haircut, or an evening out with a girlfriend is so refreshing, and so inspiring. It truly does make us better women, wives, and mothers.

I talked with my hubby about this subject, and whether taking care of me was a luxury that I just shouldn't afford at certain stages of my life. He made a statement that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. He said, "If you choose not to take care of you, then what incentive do I have to take care of you? If it's not important to you, it's not going to be important to me." Hmm, as I keep thinking on that rationale of his, I'm tempted to call him wise.

Qualified or not, perfect at this or not (and mostly not), I'm going to dive into it anyway. Jump in with me, won't you? As our schedules get filled and our time in a day seems shorter and shorter, I want to be determined. I want the time for the things that are important to me. I think there are simple, and then not-as-simple things we can do to find the time. For whatever we need the time for. Being productive. Getting things done. Taking care of our families. Running our businesses. Nourishing ourselves.

My biggest thing right now is getting rid of clutter. I'm definitely in a "purge" state of my life, but I'm finding that clutter makes me feel much busier than I truly am, and certainly much more overwhelmed than is necessary.

There is freedom in de-cluttering, no doubt. Want to start feeling less busy, and more under-whelmed?! Try decluttering. No reason to go crazy, you're just giving it a try. Just pick an area. You know which one it is. That cluttered space that makes you hold your breath when you walk by. That you can't bring yourself to tackle because you don't know where to start. Here's what I recommend:

Pick your spot. My spot recently has been that corner of the kitchen counter where everything piles up that you're not sure what to do with. Mail that you need to address, pictures the kids have drawn, reminders about phone calls that you need to make.

Give yourself permission up front to throw things away. I cannot even tell you the wonderful release this gave me. My bet is you won't be too far into the pile when you'll realize you never remembered some of those things were there to begin with, and a lot of them have been there for way too long with nobody missing them.

Keep in mind, you are not obligated to keep every scribble your child makes on a piece of paper. It does not make you a bad mother to throw it away. I no longer feel like the parent police are going to show up when I sneak out to the trash bin with the latest drawings, and take the time to stuff them down so my daughter doesn't find them. I keep the ones that are meaningful to me, or to my children, and that's it.

When you find scraps of paper with reminders of phone calls you should make, appointments you should write on the calendar, etc., write them on one piece of paper. Throw the scraps away. Don't try to get all of those things written on the calendar, called back, or put in the mailbox right now. It will just distract you from what you're trying to do.

Anything you do need to hold on to, separate into stacks as you sort. Kid's drawings that are going in the memory box, bills that need to be paid, papers to be signed, things to discuss with hubby before responding, etc.

When you're finished with that spot, put your stacks away. Right away. You'll be tempted to see your stacks and feel so much better already that you want to just stack up your stacks into one neat stack. But remember, we're decluttering, so we don't want any stacks at all!! Some things need to stay out to be addressed, of course, but that will be a small pile compared to what it was, and we can live with that.

Make a list of what you need to do to fully take care of that space, and then start doing it. Mine usually goes along the lines of "clean up counter, pay bills, mail cards, return phone calls, reminders on calendar, talk to hubby, take out trash."

See how the first item on my list was something I did before I made my list? That's the one thing about me that always makes my hubby laugh. My to-do list ALWAYS includes something I've already done. I love to cross things off a list, and this way I can cross something off right away. Then I'm already off to a good start.

When you're finished with your list - throw the list away!! No need to hold onto it, even though you want to because it's a list you have everything checked off of, for once!

I feel I can breathe a little easier, I can get inspired to purge some more clutter, and I can feel more productive and successful when I take the time to do this. It may seem like a pretty simple thing, and it is. But when your home and/or office is filled with clutter, your spirit is cluttered. My home, my business, and myself all function better when my spirit is not cluttered. Well worth the effort, I assure you. Doesn't this just feel much calmer already?!

May 18, 2010

If you're like me, you probably did the same thing I did after I just typed in the title of this post. A little snort, and a "what's that?" Extra time? Finding time? There's just not enough hours in the day! More and more often, I find myself saying to my husband as I fall into bed at night, "if I just had a few more hours in this day."

I have women ask me all the time - how do you do it? And how do you get it all done? Run a business, take care of a family, volunteer at church, find time to be creative and make things, spend time with friends? Most of the women that ask me this question are right where I am - young women with young families. Small children that just sometimes wear you out before your feet even hit the floor in the morning. Husbands that feel less like romantic partners, and more like teammates on a relay race that you're always passing the baton back and forth to. And creative spirits that are just about shriveled up, with no energy left to let the juices flow!

I'll let you in on a little secret. In reality, I don't get it all done. I would love to, don't get me wrong. But I don't. I do love when I get asked this question though, because it makes me feel like at least I'm getting enough done to make it look good! It does help that I'm a type A personality with a knack for juggling a lot of things at the same time. But at the end of the day, I'm just like you. Wishing for a few more hours, yet craving my sleep even more! I'm going to be doing some posts on various ways to get things done and marked off that list. Simple ideas that I hope will give you a few extra minutes to breathe.

I'm finding as life gets more hectic, and the stressors get heavier, that I need that time to breathe. I so want that time. We're not great when we run on empty. We're still good, no doubt, but not great. But I have that desire to be great. A great wife, a great mom, a great friend, a great woman. I don't want to settle for good. With the direction our life has taken, my husband and I both running our own businesses, a five year old with energy and creativity oozing from every pore, and a three year old that we've been fighting an almost two year battle for, I need that time to breathe.

Let's talk about easy ways to get things done. Simple gifts we can make with very little budget, even less time, and a lot of creativity. Time savers that we just couldn't live without. Thoughtful ways we can love our families without draining ourselves. Carving out a few precious moments for ourselves, but making them really count.

I'd love to hear your ideas on what you'd like to see and read about. Maybe it's something that is just your beast. That one household chore that you just can't ever seem to get a handle on. Maybe it's quick ways to love your family out loud. Maybe it's tackling that never ending to do list. Whatever it is, I would love to hear it, and find ways to figure it out with flair! In doing this, I'm hoping that our children will be delighted, our hubbies will feel like their wife is back, and those creative juices will start flowing again. Because if you're anything like me, in all of these, is where I find my joy, and there is where I find me again.